Skip to main content

UK drive to be world leader in electric cars

UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that government will invest more than US$15 million to boost the number of charging points for electric cars. Major car manufacturers BMW, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Vauxhall are all backing the Go Ultra Low campaign in a ground breaking partnership with government to debunk common myths and misconceptions that put drivers off switching to electric or hybrid cars, such as cost and how far the vehicles can travel before being recharged. Electric car o
January 31, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that government will invest more than US$15 million to boost the number of charging points for electric cars.

Major car manufacturers 1731 BMW, 838 Nissan, 2453 Renault, 1686 Toyota and 4231 Vauxhall are all backing the Go Ultra Low campaign in a ground breaking partnership with government to debunk common myths and misconceptions that put drivers off switching to electric or hybrid cars, such as cost and how far the vehicles can travel before being recharged.

Electric car owners do not have to pay car tax or congestion charges and many charge points are free to use. The cars cost from just 2 pence (US$3) a mile, which means a family that drives an electric vehicle 10,000 miles in a year would save around US$1,600 on fuel costs each year.

There are already more charging points than filling stations in London, but to make driving an electric car possible for everyone, the US$15 million funding will be used to create hundreds more charging points across the country, including 140 new rapid charge points which can charge an electric car in less than half an hour. This will cement the UK’s position as one of the best for electric vehicle recharging networks in Europe.

Announcing the funding, Clegg said: “Electric cars are one of the most promising of our green industries and we want to secure the UK’s position as a global leader in both the production and adoption of these vehicles. The extremely low running costs of electric cars help drivers save money and we are allocating more than US$15 million to boost charge points across the country to help drivers to go green. This means we can lower UK emissions and create high-tech engineering and manufacturing jobs to boost our economy.”

Related Content

  • September 5, 2013
    UK government launches new ultra low emission vehicles strategy
    Transport Minister Norman Baker has launched the UK government’s strategy, Driving the future today - a strategy for ultra low emission vehicles in the UK, to drive forward the ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) industry. The new strategy signals a major change in the way vehicles will be powered in the future and reaffirms the government’s commitment to provide new opportunities for the motor industry to help grow the UK economy.
  • January 18, 2023
    Tolling Matters: Getting the balance right
    The concept of road usage charging (RUC) is slowly coming to the fore. But it isn’t just a question of good fiscal sense – it’s about promoting equity and ensuring sustainability too, says Scott Jacobs of Emovis
  • November 2, 2017
    Moneybarn: 1,800% increase in UK electric car registrations over five year period
    Nearly 10,000 electric cars are now registered in the UK with Japanese and German manufacturers dominating most popular brands in the UK, according to a five-year analysis on the development of the Electric vehicle industry by Moneybarn. These findings have been revealed following the government’s plan to ban the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040.
  • March 16, 2021
    UK puts £3bn into new bus strategy
    Daily fare caps, plus better coordination of multimodal services, are promised